Thursday, October 3, 2013

Each year I sort the fresh hop beers I've tried into 4 tiers: 1. those that are very special, brilliant examples of why we love this time of year; 2. those that capture the green fresh hop flavor nicely but are not quite as exciting as the first group; 3. beers that don't really show fresh hop character, but are tasty nonetheless; and 4. beers to avoid for one reason or another.

Within the tiers, I try to rank them approximately in order of how well I liked the beer, though with so many -- 44 so far -- I might switch the order of any two or three beers on any given day. That also means that I might actually like some of the top beers in tier 3 better than the bottom beers in tier 2. I would have liked to put 12 beers in the Must Try category, but that seemed ridiculous, so I chopped it at 5. Of course it's just one man's opinion, and your mileage may vary. For reference, here's last year's list.

About half the beers on the list are ones I tasted at the Hood River Hops Fest this past Saturday. Don't forget, the Portland Fresh Hops Festival is at Oaks Park this Friday and Saturday, October 4th and 5th, 2013. Enjoy!